time to sew

 Jenny from http://www.elefantz.com/ is a blog that I enjoy reading daily she has wonderful ideas, tutorials and patterns that you can purchase.  Jenny is also a very generous lady and has many free patterns.
I printed out her sheets above to help me organise my house... I have said it before I love doing lists!

 Jenny's newest pattern giveaway is for her sparrow block to help an organisation called sparrow ministries.

I scored a box at Christmas time and have been putting my current project inside it to keep it together and away from my thieving cat who also loves to leave a ton of fur on everything.

 If you go to Jenny's  blog (link above and on my blog list) you will find all the information you need to get started.  This year I'm aiming to sew a bit more not just for myself but for good causes.

 I went into my stash and found some nice fabrics which will suit the applique block nicely.

 The other group that I am going to become active with this year is Aussie hero quilts.  My guild has started making tops during January.

 They have block of the month and the one just finishing is a poppy block, which was perfect for me to get started with.

 The instructions were clear and easy to follow, I started them just before I went away and today I had spare time and got them finished.

 go to http://aussieheroquilts.blogspot.com.au/ and you can read all about this amazing group.  Even if you aren't a quilter you can help out with donations.

Tomorrow is my annual triathlon with my bestie down at Albert Park Lake.  I am so under prepared this year so have decided to enjoy the journey rather than trying to achieve a time in the top ten of my age group.
 I will be running for my friend Lynne as I did last year and I will also ride for Nicola who also passed away early last year from cancer.  I will take time to remember those close to me who have lost their battle with cancer.

Triathlon pink and ninjas

 Yesterday was the BIG day that I have been training for over the last 8 weeks or so with my best friend and training partner.  This year they let our family and friends onto the pool deck so they could cheer us on, take photos and tell us later how terrible we looked lol.  My friend and I were the first 2 pinkies in the water for the day!

 By the time we got to our first buoy we weren't coming first any more... I'm the one just coming up to the buoy with my right arm coming out with my black watch!  We swam 300m and usually I enjoy the swim and feel okay at the end... not this year, for some reason I really didn't enjoy the swim and found it hard going.

 The bike leg.... my favourite leg!  I did really well on the short 9km course. My stats of 27.7km average and 39km max speed. I took 19mins to ride including running with the bike too and from the racks.  Best of all I came 1st in my age cat and 13th overall out of 313 entries, gotta be happy with that!!

 The run was a hard slog, we hadn't trained very much for the run this year due to my partner having back problems and other aches and pains.  I saw a message on face book a few days ago that one of my friends, friend has breast cancer and had received some bad news.  As tripink is all about raising money and awareness for breast cancer I told her I would run the entire run leg in her honour and not stop even when it was really hurting.  I told my legs to shut up twice and sucked it up and thought about Tracey and her family and how much harder her journey will be.  I didn't stop for the whole 3km... didn't go fast but I didn't stop or walk.
My overall time and placing was 48.16   I placed 5th this year in my age division and 68th overall.  I will say I had hoped to be under 45mins but my swim and transitions let me down, however in the end I finished and I felt good at the end and still do today so I'm very happy.

 I must have exhausted the beast so much that her front wheel fell off LOL.... no seriously I had to take it off so that I could fit my other daughter in the car after her Judo training.

 speaking of Ninjas.... here is the other little ninja that I finished.... they both went for a ride on the beast.

 Then they did what ninjas do best.....

I don't think Milly was very worried about them as they stalked her in the long grass.

Triathlon pink

Well a year ago my training partner and I embarked on our very first triathlon. We did the mini which was a 200m swim, a 6km ride and a 2km run. I was to be blunt rooted after it lol.

We had trained hard for our event but we didn't realise how hard we would go and in many ways we hadn't trained properly. How ever we enjoyed ourselves and since then we have done 2 other open water triathlons.

Today we returned to MSAC to participate again, this year we decided to go the long course. So 300m swim, 9km ride and a 3km run. I have been really crook this week with a flu bug, but dosed myself up to the eyeballs in cold and flu tablets and other immune helping stuffs.

The swim wasn't too bad, bit like swimming in a washing machine full of legs and arms. The ride was good as long as you knew how to avoid the newbies who wobble all over the road and the run, well that was bloody long! and you avoided the swamp that the nearby sprinklers had made. All in all it was a great event.

So how did I go you ask?? WELL.... I completed it in 46.32 and my buddy in 45.17 coming 42nd overall and 31st overall out of 222 entries. The most exciting thing though, is that I came 1ST in my age group!!! whoooo hoooo. Now that's a win!

Happy Australia day!!

What did you do on Australia day??

I went for short 24km bike ride with my training partner, this is usually a 42km ride but I haven't been well these past few days with a flu like lurgy, by the time we had done that and had a coffee I must admit I felt like I had done a 100km ride.

I have my possibly last triathlon of the season on Sunday and it will be our biggest one yet. 300m swim, 9km ride and 3km run. All very easy when done by themselves heheheh. The only part that worries me is the final 1km of the run.

Here's another snippet of what I am working on.

I have been told that my pictures might be on the large side and take too long to download... has anyone found this to be so?? I need to figure out how to change the photos... Ive been told picassa..... another thing to figure out *sigh*

Tri hard...

The weather was fine, chilly but clear...
We checked the map and walked the course

The finish line loomed in the distance

the water quality was below acceptable to swim in so instead of swimming in the bay we had to do a 500mtr barefoot sprint on the sand.... We hadn't trained for that!!

My friend was going so fast on her bike that she was a blur!

For a change she only saw the back of me!!

I did really well and improved my times from the last tri. I finished in 36.48 and did PB's in both the bike and the run.
This time I came 22nd in my age group and 116th overall out of 225. My partner came 28th and 156th overall, not bad when she had been ill earlier in the week and still wasn't 100%

We were disappointed that we weren't able to do the open water swim but I still really enjoyed the event and I'm looking forward to next season.

We need a new challenge!

triathlon take 2

OK so the count down begins again for this Sundays Triathlon. This time my poor team partner has been ill all week (I have an advantage moohawhahahahahha) no seriously I do feel bad for my team mate and hope that she is feeling better by Sunday (gotta say that as she might read my blog!!). We haven't done nearly as much training for this event but we have been keeping up the fitness in general so I know we will be fine.

We are going to go down to the beach on Saturday as they are having a registration/pre tri talk thingy so she thought we could take advantage of this and check out transition and where we will be riding and running. I hope that I don't panic and loose my bike rack position and waste valuable time like I did in my last tri. If the weather isn't too bad we might even have a dip in the ocean, if its cold I honestly don't know what we will do on Sunday, freeze I guess!!


I am making my sister in law in London a quilt, its now ready to be quilted by yours truly, (thanks to my friends for helping me baste the other night) I also have a baby quilt for the great niece (EEK I'm going to be a great Aunt!!) this is awaiting its binding to be sewn down.


I also have a quilt to make for my cousins new baby here, my Mum has 'commissioned' me to make all my cousins babies quilts as they have arrived, so another little girl turned up a few months ago. I am using a Moda bake shop recipe but have found the directions a tad confusing so have sat and re written them so that I can understand them. I'm not saying that they aren't well written, just confusing to me! Its a lovely pattern and I will post a picture once its done.

I have however run out of time to quilt this before I leave on our trip to the UK (did I mention this??) So I have employed the services of my lovely friend Anita to do the deed while I am gallivanting across the globe with my family. Then when I return I can pop on the binding and away we go!!

cyclones and triathlons

firstly like many others I am thinking about the cyclone that is about to hit the top part of Australia. All the crazy weather we have been getting in the last few weeks, its madness... mother nature is very pissed off.

Now my team coffee partner and I have signed up for another triathlon, this one is open water..eeeekkkkkk!!! This is when I hate the fact that I wear contact lenses and it worries me that in the washing machine that I will be getting churned around in that someone will whack my goggles off my head and that will stuff me up big time.

Apart from that training is on again, not that we really stopped lol.

School is back on Friday yeeee harrrr!! the noisy one is quite pleased to be going back to see her friends and I think the froglet is rather nervous as she is in year 11 and its no longer a walk in the park. She will be fine as she is a good student and works hard to achieve high standards, she has some new subjects which she isn't sure about but I believe she will do okay.

I have a baby quilt all finished except sewing down the binding and doing a label.... oooh poop forgot about that sucker lol. now to get the other quilt top basted and quilted.... not to mention the other quilt that i need to start.... sigh

My most amazing day

Today was the day that my team partner and I competed in our first triathlon. This was a special one just for women and proceeds go to breast cancer research.
the day started very early at 5am... yes you read correctly I was up at 5am and by the time I got the girls up, my support team arrived and we met up with my partner in crime.

Now no event is possible without coffee and this guy was making a killing!!

We registered and received a really nice singlet top, sun visor and swim cap. You can see here my timing chip that I had to wear on my left ankle (note the pink toenails and fingernails!!)

I have big black numbers on my right calf and right arm... in permanant pen!
The order of a triathlon for those who don't know, is swim, cycle and run. Our distances were 200m swim/6km ride/2km run. Quite doable we thought, this was the medium course. My partner and I have been training for months and felt really confident that we would do well and have little or no problem with the distances....

We were partly right... Swim was pretty good, I did get stuck behind a couple of ladies on the last pool can (floating thing to swim around!) so lost a few seconds and also at the steps waiting to get out... Then on the bikes and away I went.. need to work on those transitions! the ride itself was good, but I was puffing a bit and could see the running track.. it seemed MUCH longer than 2km.

My family and friends had placed themselves along the course at intervals which was great as I was cheered on not once but up to 4 times! They really kept me going.. and the thought of my team mate who had a big head start lol.

When I got back to transition I couldn't find my position on the rack for my bike and lost valuable time (lesson to learn!) this kinda threw me off my timing and I struggled to keep going. We had to do 2 laps of the running track, I felt that I ran twice as far as I was supposed to! The weirdest thing is that running is usually my weakest leg and I beat my partner in this and she beat me on the bike which I usually blitz her on... I think I better at hills than her lol.

At the end of the event we received a lovely medal and a huge sense of achievement.
I placed 43rd overall (out of 129) and 8Th in my age group out of 15. I have to tell you though that I placed 3rd in the run leg!!6Th in swimming and 9Th in cycle. My team mate really did well and came 22ND overall and 4Th in the age group. she came 4Th in swim, 3rd in cycle and 7Th in run.
We can now call ourselves triathletes and will be doing this again!

Triathlon pink

I have been meaning to blog all week and got caught up with other stuff.

anyway tomorrow morning at 8am I will be doing my first ever triathlon with my best mate from the gym. I will post details and some photos as soon as I am able to move!

No seriously, I believe that we will do very well and will be on an incredible high afterwards. Got my friends and family coming to cheer me on and have received text messages and face book messages from other friends cheering us on.

I will be crossing the finish line not only with a sense of personal achievement but I will be thinking of all the friends I have lost to breast cancer and my Aunt who is battling this awful disease.